<~> Chapter 154

I sighed as Emi, Celeste's drakken assistant, placed a cup of tea in front of me. The six members of our party were in Celeste's tent right now to make use of whatever magic she used to block out eavesdroppers. Celeste had wanted to be here for this conversation as well, but she had other work to attend to today. After becoming closer with Celeste, I didn't mind her knowing what I was capable of... which was the only reason we were allowing her assistant to listen in for her. Her presence was part of the price for using this space for the conversation. Still, I didn't really like more people knowing the details about my abilities, even if it was only to pass information to Celeste. She had even given her assistant one of the amulets that let her hear Luna.

"Are you sure we have to do this today, in here?" I asked.

("We've been meaning to have this conversation for a long time. We should take advantage of the opportunity to discuss this in a safe place with plentiful paper, pens, and ink to take notes. We also need to see if there's something we can use against those swarms of beetle monsters on the third floor,") Luna said.

I glanced awkwardly at Emi again. She smiled and gave me a respectful nod, but didn't say anything. She was really good at blending into the background, but was always quick to be there when Celeste needed something from her. It made me a bit curious about what her story was, but there had never been an opportunity, nor an abundance of time to talk about it.

I sighed. "Alright then. We should get started."

"What exactly are we doing in here?" Iris asked, fidgeting in her seat.

Maxwell smiled as he prepared a quill for himself. "You know how we've said that Helena gets stronger when she eats monsters? She usually gains new abilities from each new monster she eats. We're finally going to create a list of every monster she's eaten and what she's gained from it, if we can figure it out."

Iris gave me a look that was a bit hard to decipher. She had quickly adapted to the appearance of my umbral hound form, but I still got uneasy looks from her occasionally. This wasn't that, but it felt like it came from the same place. I think the idea of me eating monsters at all was pretty weird, let alone gaining power from them.

Aria cleared her throat. "So, we're going to start with the stuff that happened even before I joined all of you, right? I've gathered a few things, but I've always felt like I didn't know the full story."

I sighed. "Yes, I'll revisit everything so it's easier."

"We should start with the seventeenth floor of the Fallow dungeon and work our way down. I know you started on the sixteenth floor, but it would feel odd to do the sixteenth, then seventeenth, then fifteenth," Piper said.

I nodded. "Sure, but we should start with the umber hound first, regardless. The changes from it were the most important, I think."

This got a round of nods, so I continued. "When I first ran into it, I was still in my original world."

Iris tilted her head. "What do you mean by original world?"

"Did I never tell you about that?" I asked, confused.

Iris glanced around at everyone before settling back on me. "No? I don't know what you're talking about."

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. I already told Celeste about this detail, though I haven't gone into specifics. I didn't mind talking about this in front of her assistant, but I didn't really want to explain everything again right now. I shook my head. "Okay, so long story short, I come from a different world without magic, beastkin, monsters, or dragons. Well, except in fantasy stories, I guess. There were only humans."

She raised an eyebrow with a disbelieving face. "That sounds... weird. What did everyone do if there were no monsters or magic?"

"It's complicated and not important," I said, ignoring the question. "Anyway, I was on a run up a mountain trail after dark and I ran into an umber hound. I originally thought it was a coyote, but when I finally laid eyes on it, I freaked out and ran."

There was a round of understanding nods.

"I didn't get very far, and the umber hound jumped on me and pinned me to the ground. Before it could kill me, I managed to stab it in the neck and kill it first, but something happened, and I ended up in a random cave in the process, specifically, on the sixteenth floor of the Fallow dungeon. Something happened to me and I ended up turning into one of them," I explained.

"The pelt that we took from the umber hound had spatial affinity. We believe that it transported her to our world somehow," Maxwell added.

Iris glanced at Aria, then back at me. "I guess I have no reason not to believe your story, but do you have any proof?"

I shrugged and pulled my bag out of my storage ring. I dug through it until I found my old purse. Popping open the clasp, I put my broken phone on the table, a few bits of random makeup I still had, along with the hunting knife that had saved my life. "This is my... uh, a piece of technology from my world. You don't have a word for this thing in draconic, I don't think. And this is the knife that I used to kill it." I pulled the survival knife from its sheath and set it down in front of Iris.

Rather than Iris, it was Aria who picked it up. "What the? How come you've never shown this to me? This is one of the highest quality knives I've ever seen!"

I laughed. "To be honest, I was afraid you'd want to keep it. Aside from saving my life, it was a gift from my father before he died. It's one of the only things I still have of him, even before I came here."

Aria sobered in reaction to my words. "Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. I understand. Maybe we could show this to a blacksmith and see if we can have something similar made. Though, I don't know if they could identify this kind of steel. I've never seen anything like it." She tilted the blade and looked at the sharp edge closely.

"I suppose I wouldn't mind showing someone, as long as no one took it from me or tried to take it apart. Like I said, it's sentimental," I replied.

Aria frowned and slid the knife back into its sheath before handing it back to me. During that time, Iris had been fiddling with my phone. "I don't see how this is proof of anything. It's polished to a mirrored shine, but I don't know why a handheld looking glass with such a dark color is anything special. It's all cracked anyway."

I chuckled and took the phone back from her. I tried holding down the button, but it still didn't power on. It hasn't worked since I dropped it when everything happened. "Maybe I should take it to someone who might be able to understand it. Someone who creates magic items, or deals with small things like jewelry."

"That's an artifact of some kind?" Iris asked.

"Not exactly. But I think it might be interesting to someone who studies artifacts. It certainly isn't very impressive when it's broken, though. I wonder if it would hold a charge." I tilted the phone and looked down at the charging port. The port didn't look damaged at a glance.

("Hold a charge? Like one of your electricity devices?") Luna asked excitedly.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I chuckled. "Yes, exactly like that. This was... an object that let you communicate at long distances, essentially anywhere else on the planet, provided the proper infrastructure was in place for it. It could also capture still images, like a perfectly lifelike painting, and be viewed later. It could also rapidly show you pictures fast enough to imitate a view of motion."

I tilted my head and frowned... I just realized that my vocabulary of the words I knew in draconic had grown significantly recently... I hadn't really thought about it, but speaking has become a lot easier since... since I ate those people.

("Helena! What's wrong?") Luna asked.

My brow furrowed, and I shook my head. "It's just... I realized that I must have gained some knowledge of draconic from those assassins... That last thing I told you, there were a few words in there that I shouldn't have known."

Piper nodded with a frown. "I actually have noticed your accent has lessened a lot lately, but I just thought that your mastery over the language had improved. But... it did seem sudden, now that I'm thinking about it."

I rubbed my face. "I guess I should have known. I did take some of their memories, why not their language skills?" I asked incredulously.

"You know, we're getting horribly off task," Maxwell said. "We don't have unlimited time to spend in this tent."

Emi chuckled. "I'm sure if you take long enough, Celeste will be delighted to join you."

I gave the drakken assistant a look, but it didn't seem to faze her. I suppose you have to be made of tough stuff to work for that dragon woman.

Shaking my head, I decided to continue. "Right. So the umber hound seems to have given me the ability to shift into a bipedal umber hound, and really powerful regeneration. I'm also stronger and faster now, and have better senses, especially when I'm in that form. Shifting used to feel... weird, but now it doesn't bother me much."

Aria laughed. "Great, first one down! Just seventeen floors to go, plus everything you've eaten since!"

Maxwell chuckled. "Well, the next floor will be easy. I think the only thing you ate on the seventeenth floor was that bear monster thing."

I nodded. "Yeah, most of the monsters on that floor were undead, so the bear thing was the only thing with a heart to eat. My instincts turned me away from everything else."

"So, what did that give you?" Piper asked.

I looked up, pursed my lips, and thought about it. "No idea."

Piper sighed. "None?"

I shrugged. "It's hard to say. That was really early on. I didn't even know my limits yet. All I knew was that my instincts craved eating hearts. I don't think I figured out what was happening until I ate the bats on the next floor."

Maxwell shrugged. "Well, we'll just put down unknown here. So, the sixteenth floor. You ate the frost salamanders and the goblin king."

I nodded. "There were also the tunnelers, but I don't think I got anything from them. I don't think they have hearts either. At least, not in a way that my instincts recognized. I didn't realize it right away, but in retrospect, the frost salamanders gave me an immunity to the cold. I can still tell it's cold, but it doesn't bother me at all anymore. I don't even need a jacket in the snow."

"What about the goblin king?" Maxwell asked.

I shrugged. "Not sure either. If you recall, I passed out right after that fight."

Maxwell grimaced. "I remember, I had to carry you. No idea though?"

"Sorry, none," I said, shaking my head.

Piper finished her tea and pushed it to the side to get a refill. "Well, the bats on the fifteenth floor were pretty obvious. They improved your hearing."

I winced and nodded. "After giving me an awful headache. It took a while to get used to hearing that well, but now it's easier for me to tune things out. It's useful for eavesdropping and scouting though."

Aria sighed. "A little too useful, you make me feel like my place on the team is a little redundant as the scout."

I shrugged. "You're honestly better at stealth than I am. I can do it, but I find it nerve-wracking."

"Nothing from the slimes. What about the Minotaur? The one you got your axe from?" Maxwell asked.

I leaned back in thought. "I remember feeling stronger after that one. Like physically stronger. I was already powerful, but I'm pretty sure that gave me a lot more brute strength."

"What about the forest floor, the fourteenth floor?" Maxwell asked.

I shook my head. "That was the one with the normal deer and the alraune monster. Nothing from normal animals, and the plants didn't have hearts... So nothing."

"So you guys weren't together that long before you found me, then?" Aria asked.

"Not really," I replied. "We spent several weeks on the sixteenth and seventeenth floors before we found you, though."

Aria leaned back in her chair. "I don't recall you eating anything in the bloody halls."

I shook my head. "The shadow monsters weren't real, and that scary spider thing was made of metal."

"I remember you eating that barlette, though. Do you remember what you got from that?" Aria asked.

"Nope! I remember it tasted pretty good, but it didn't really give me anything noticeable," I said.

Iris leaned her head against her fist on the table. "Why are we even doing this? It sounds like you don't know what most of the hearts do in the first place."

I chuckled. "Yeah... well. If nothing else, it's good to have a short list of everything I can transform into with the other ability I got, but don't worry. Most of the good ones are coming up next."

Emi smiled. "Maybe we should take a short break. Why don't you relax for a little while, and I'll go get all of you some lunch."

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